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UW to reckon with Ku Klux Klan history, but won't remove KKK member names from buildings

University of Wisconsin-Madison will not remove from campus buildings the names of well-known student leaders who also were members of a campus Ku Klux Klan society in the early 1900s, the university announced Thursday.

University of Wisconsin-Madison will not remove from campus buildings the names of well-known student leaders who also were members of a campus Ku Klux Klan society in the early 1900s, the university announced Thursday.

A report from a campus study group released Thursday acknowledged the power of the argument in favor of removing segregationist names and replacing them with others who made major contributions but did not hold such views.

The study group also acknowledged the viewpoint that the student leaders were "people of their time,' that they affiliated with a group named Ku Klux Klan for a brief time during their youth, and that this self-identification shouldn't overshadow their subsequent contributions to campus, community and American life.

A Klan group formed as an interfraternity society in 1919 included student body leaders Porter Butts and Fredric March, whose names are prominently displayed in the Memorial Union. Names of other Klan members are on other campus facilities and around Madison.

Butts, who died in 1991, was given the university's highest honor, the Distinguished Alumni Award, for his service and commitment to the university. He helped design the buildings and programs for more than 100 student unions in the U.S. and around the world.

March, who died in 1975, was a Hollywood star of the 1930s and '40s — the only actor to win both an Academy Award and Tony Award twice. His best actor Oscars were for roles in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and "The Best Years of Our Lives."

Instead of removing their names from campus buildings — which some argue would be whitewashing of history — the university vowed to make amends through education.

Leaders said the university would acknowledge the past and learn from those who protested against racism. The university also will commit more resources toward recruiting students of color, retaining and graduating them, and making the campus more welcoming to them, leaders said Thursday.

Universities across the country have grappled with student demands to rename buildings honoring founders and other leaders whose segregationist views many consider to be offensive and symbolic of hatred and division.

The University of Michigan Board of Regents voted last month to rename two buildings whose names honor a former president and a former professor, both with racist legacies.

Michigan's science building bore the name of C.C. Little, its president from 1925-'29, who was also president of the American Eugenics Society.

In addition to renaming buildings, the governing board created a process to review names of individuals whose histories might make them inappropriate to be honored by naming university buildings after them.

Princeton University two years ago removed a wall-size photograph of Woodrow Wilson from a dining hall because it was considered "unduly celebratory" of the former president's segregationist views. At the same time, the university's board of trustees decided to keep the Wilson name on its school of public and international affairs.

Like UW-Madison, Princeton confronted the issue by pledging to ramp up its diversity efforts and provide a more nuanced look at racism.

UW-Madison ranks dead last in the Big Ten for its percentage of African-American students. Although African Americans constitute 6.6% of the state's residents, only 3% of the flagship university's student body identifies as African American.

The study group, which UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank formed last fall, included faculty in history, Afro-American Studies and social work, as well as those working with facilities on campus and outside experts.

"What needs addressing is not the action of a few individuals, but rather the culture of that era," said study group co-chair Floyd Rose, president of the 100 Black Men of Madison.

"To that point, the thought of the committee is what is most important: The name of the building, or what is going on inside the building, and to try and create an inclusive environment and climate."

The report recommended a "searching examination" of the struggles many minority communities have faced in becoming full and equal members, and efforts to make UW a place where everyone can truly belong.

The report advised the university to match its rhetoric with resources by making commitments to units, programs, and policies that explicitly seek to create a campus where racial equity struggles are no longer so necessary.

The group recommended the chancellor:

Recover and acknowledge the history of exclusion on campus, especially through the voices of those who experienced and resisted it, who pressed for a full and equal place in campus life.

Support a project to recover the voices of campus community members, in the era of the Klan and since, who struggled and endured in a climate of hostility, and who sought to change it. The results of that research should be in a prominent place on campus. The university also wants firsthand accounts to preserve the history of Jewish, Native American, black, Latino and LGBTQ students.

Commit more university resources toward inclusivity. The Department of Afro-American Studies and the Programs in American Indian Studies, Asian American Studies, and Chican@ and Latin@Studies face challenging futures, the report notes.

Per the study group's proposal, the university will "make major commitments to expand access and affordability to UW-Madison to first-generation and low-income families," Blank told reporters during a conference call.

The study group report says its members felt strongly that any marker or display related to exploring the past would be incomplete if it focused primarily on the activities of the campus Klans or other perpetrators of campus intolerance.

"Instead, any such exhibit or display should focus on the experiences, words, and achievements of those who were marginalized or excluded, and those who struggled to create a more just and inclusive university, whether or not their efforts immediately bore fruit. They represent a past very much worth recovering."

The group also urged the creation of a study group to investigate successful retention strategies. For example, exit interviews with faculty of color who leave the institution in conjunction with interviews of tenured faculty of color could shed light on reasons why some stay and others leave.